F1 head Ecclestone settles bribery charges for $100 million

Motor racing impresario Bernie Ecclestone is a free man again, after a court in Munich, Germany accepted his offer to pay $100 million to settle charges of bribery, the largest settlement of its kind in German history.

The court’s decision represents a remarkable outcome to one of the biggest bribery trials in recent history in Europe–and one that had seemed unlikely after the man on the other side of the deal in question, German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky, had already been convicted.

The 83 year-old head of the multi-billion dollar travelling circus that is Formula 1 has been on trial in Munich since April. He was accused of paying Gribkowsky, formerly chief risk officer with Munich-based regional lender Bayerische Landesbank, $44 million to ensure that the bank sold its controlling stake in F1 to CVC Capital Partners at a below-market price, on the understanding that CVC would keep Ecclestone in charge of the business.

Ecclestone, who has built up F1 into one of world sport’s most valuable franchises over 40 years, denied the charges. He claimed Gribkowsky had blackmailed him into paying the money. Gribkowsky is currently serving an eight-year sentence, after being convicted in 2012.

In addition to the court settlement, Ecclestone has also offered €25 million to settle a separate claim for damages from BayernLB, a person familiar with the matter told Fortune. BayernLB’s management will likely decide this week whether or not to accept that, he added.

German media reported Tuesday that presiding Judge Peter Noll had said that “to a substantial degree”, the suspicions against Ecclestone had not been confirmed in the course of the hearings, and that the panel of judges thought there was little likelihood of more conclusive proofs being presented.

He denied suggestions that Ecclestone had been allowed to “buy off” the court.

“That is not a deal. That has nothing to do with buying a free pass,” the news agency dpa reported Noll as saying.

The newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung cited prosecutor Thomas Steinkraus-Koch as saying that Ecclestone had admitted he had acted wrongly and had contributed to clearing the affair up. He also noted that Ecclestone’s age and doubts over his ability to complete a jail sentence had also played a role in his agreeing to drop the charges.

Sponsors crank up pressure on FIFA over Qatar World Cup

Allegations of corruption at Fifa, the organisation that runs world soccer, are giving its financial sponsors increasing headaches, with only three days to go before the start of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

All but one of the half-dozen official ‘partners’ of Fifa have now voiced public concern about the repeated and increasingly detailed allegations, most notably by the UK’s Sunday Times, that the Qatar football federation practised bribery on a huge scale to win the right to host the 2022 World Cup.

Zurich-based Fifa has suspended its own internal inquiry into the matter until after the tournament in an effort to keep international media attention concentrated on its showcase event.

It was unavailable for comment Monday due to a public holiday in Switzerland. However, Reuters reported its President Sepp Blatter later as rebutting the allegations in remarks to reporters.

“Once again there is a sort of storm against Fifa relating to the Qatar World Cup,” Reuters reported Blatter as saying, without identifying who he was talking about. “Sadly there’s a great deal of discrimination and racism and this hurts me.”

The Sunday Times’ latest allegations had carried little weight as long as they were perceived as being fed by sour grapes from the English Football Association, which had also bid to host the 2022 tournament.

But with media around the world now picking up on its increasingly detailed revelations, the organisation’s backers are starting to fret at being associated with it. Fifa is set to receive some $4 billion in broadcasting and sponsorship rights for the tournament.

Sony SNE was the first to break ranks on Sunday, saying that “we expect these allegations to be investigated appropriately, and that we continue to expect FIFA to adhere to its principles of integrity, ethics and fair play across all aspects of its operations.”

It was followed by German sportswear giant Adidas AG ADDYY which said in a statement that: “the negative tenor of the public debate around Fifa at the moment is neither good for football nor for Fifa and its partners,” although it said it was “confident that the matter is being dealt with as a priority.”

Card payments firm Visa V issued a similar comment, while Coca Cola Inc. KO said that “Anything that detracts from the mission and ideals of the Fifa World Cup is a concern to us.”

Fifa’s ‘Partners’ are its long-term, core backers who contribute the most to its coffers. They are followed by event-specific sponsors and its national ‘supporters’. The partnerships tend to run for extremely long terms, reflecting the value of the publicity that they bring. Adidas’ contract with Fifa runs through 2030, while that of Korean carmaker Hyundai/Kia Motors, for example, runs through 2022.

“We are confident that FIFA is taking these allegations seriously and that the Investigatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee will conduct a thorough investigation,” Hyundai/Kia HYMTF said Monday.